Tahlee
Tahlee is a historic Australian property of 68.8 hectares (170 acres) situated on the north side of Port Stephens near Karuah in New South Wales in the suburb of Tahlee. It is the current location for Tahlee Bible College and the original site of the Australian Agricultural Company.
The earliest inhabitants of this area were the Worimi tribe. Tahlee comes from the local Aboriginal word, Tarlee, meaning "sheltered from the wind and above water". Early relationships between the original inhabitants and white settlers were relatively harmonious. In fact, the Australian Agricultural Company would not have succeeded without their help.
Captain James Cook first sighted Port Stephens on 11 May 1777. He named it after Philip Stephens, then Secretary to the Admiralty. Charles Grimes, Surveyor General of the Colony, explored the area in 1795. It was concluded from his unfavourable report that it would never "be necessary to send a second time to it". This report was later criticised when Newcastle Harbour was established.
The Australian Agricultural Company (AA Co) was established in 1824 with a capital of ₤1 million. It was formed with the purpose of producing articles of export not raised in any other English settlement, and other objects of a colonisation character. The British Parliament granted the company 1,000,000 acres (4,047 km2) of land in the colony of New South Wales, under certain conditions.
The company's Sydney committee consisted of Messrs James and Hannibal Macarthur and James Bowman. These representatives were later criticised for their lack of enthusiasm in finding a suitable location to use as the company's base.John Oxley, the Surveyor General of New South Wales, urged the committee to consider the Liverpool Plains, the Lachlan and the head of the Macquarie River. These suggestions were rejected in favour of the coast, where shipping facilities were available. Oxley suggested Port Stephens, which the committee finally accepted when Robert Dawson, the company's first commissioner, arrived in Sydney on 23 December 1825 with stock, plant and equipment for the new settlement. On 1 January 1826 he set out to explore Port Stephens, eventually deciding on the present site of Tahlee and Carrington as a suitable place for his headquarters.
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